The Rules (20 page)

The woman hanging on his arm in the photo at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas didn’t look like a friend. Plus, Twiggle O’Hara, the singer/actress/model was gorgeous, with bone-straight raven tresses cut in a blunt bob, ruby lips, and piercing brown eyes that challenged the cameras to find a bad side.

“That’s what I said,” Gavin confirmed, tiredly.

“If you say so.”

“I invited you to come, remember?”

Terri had been tempted to accompany him but couldn’t risk having her photo splashed all over social media, and to date, she hadn’t told Gavin everything about her past. She preferred to keep their relationship low-key, but on the upside, the danger with Talon had safely passed. During the past six weeks, her online research indicated he remained in Atlanta, and according to her brother, local mumblings indicated he might start up another business—a legitimate one this time.

The fire at Stack Home Apartments turned out to be arson, started by her strange neighbor across the hall. After numerous letters about lease violations involving the condition of his apartment, and complaints about the noise level, the landlord had finally asked him to move out. In retaliation, her neighbor set fire to the place but miscalculated and lost his life in the blaze.

“I told you I’m not one for the lights and camera. And is that your excuse for being caught kissing another woman?” Terri demanded. The nerve. He was actually blaming her.

“I kissed her on the cheek because she’s a good friend.”

“That looked like more than a kiss on the cheek.”

“It’s the angle of the photo,” Gavin said testily, sounding as if he spoke through clenched teeth. “I kissed her cheek.”

“What about the other images? Your arm is around her, touching her hip. It looks like a very familiar touch, like you’ve done it dozens of times before.” He touched Terri like that, resting his hand on her hip or just above her bottom. “I don’t understand why the two of you have to be all up on each other if you’re only friends—buddies, as you put it. And why did a headline say
Back Together Again
, as if you’ve reunited with a long lost love?”

She’d always been confident about her ability to hold a man’s interest and wasn’t the jealous type. Yet there was no doubt the burning sensation in her belly was ugly, putrid jealousy.

“To sell magazines. To get clicks on their website. I have to deal with this nonsense all the time.” Frustration poured through the lines.

“I thought you liked attention.”

“I like when I can control what the media says about me. Frankly, the stories never mattered before.”

“So it’s me?”

“Yeah, it’s you.”

That stung. “Fine. I’ll pretend I didn’t see you with another woman. I’ll pretend a famous floozy pawing all over you doesn’t bother me.”

“That’s not what I said. I just…” He sighed. “I’m coming back tonight.”

“You’re at an important event and have parties to go to. You can’t do that. We’re good. Have fun with your
friend
. Not like we both can’t have friends.”

“You know when you say shit like that, it drives me crazy.” Quiet rested on the line. “I’ll see you when I get back.”

“Don’t worry. I’m over it.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to hear about Twiggle and our supposed kiss when I get back.”

“I said it’s fine!” Terri snapped.

He muttered something unintelligible, and she strained to hear but couldn’t distinguish any of the words.

“Fine,” he said. Then he hung up.

Hung up
. Without saying goodbye.

Terri lifted a hand above her head to fling the phone across the room, but changed her mind and simply tossed it onto the sofa.

“Fine,” she spat to the empty room.

Terri bounced up from the chair and went into the kitchen. Minutes later, a pint of chocolate chip ice cream in hand and a two-liter Pepsi wedged under her arm, she dragged herself over to the sofa and plopped down. Flipping on the television, she stared at the screen, cursing herself for nosing around Gavin’s social media account. Now she wished she hadn’t been so curious.

Screw him
, she thought, and settled in for the night.

****

Loud pounding startled Terri from sleep. She bolted upright, frowning and searching the dim room for the source of the racket. Melted ice cream pooled in the container on the coffee table, and an infomercial extolling the virtues of a new and improved diet pill played on the oversized flat screen TV.

The pounding came again, and she wondered who in the hell had the audacity to pound on her door this time of night. There better be a bomb scare in the hotel.

She scampered to the door and peered out the peephole.
Gavin
. His intense stare focused on the door, as if he could see her. A shiver shimmied up her spine.

“Open the door,” he said.

“Maybe I have company,” she called out snidely to annoy him.

“Maybe you want me to break this goddamn door down.”

Terri unhooked the latch and opened the door, and he lanced her with an icy glare.

“You think it’s funny to make me wait out here?”

“I was asleep. I didn’t know you were out here.” In black pants and shirtsleeves rolled up on his muscular forearms, he looked delectable. “Why didn’t you just come in?”

“I don’t have the key on me, and besides, I told you this is your space. You have to invite me in.”

He stated those conditions in the beginning, and not once had he ever broken his promise.

Terri stepped back and widened the door. “Come in.”

Gavin marched in, tension rippling off the rigid set of his spine. She followed him to the middle of the living room, where he cast a glance at the half-empty bottle of Pepsi and melted ice cream.

She folded her arms over her yellow cami. “What are you doing here? You aren’t due back until day after tomorrow.”

“That was the plan, but my woman called me a few hours ago, acting like a damn fool.”

My woman.
When exactly the change took place, Terri couldn’t be sure, but he was hers and she was his.

“If I’m such a fool, what are you doing here?”

“To talk to you in person and prove to you there’s nothing going on between me and Twiggle.”

“How do you plan to do that?”

“I have a message for you.” Gavin showed her the phone, Twiggle freeze-framed on the screen.

“What—”

He turned on the video and the actress spoke in her lilting Irish brogue.

“Hello Terri, please don’t be mad at Gavin-pooh. He’s a dear, dear friend of mine and was only doing me a
huge
favor. Helping me save face, actually, after my dreadful ex humiliated me.” Her lips turned downward into an exaggerated sad face. “You don’t need the sordid details. Please don’t be mad at him. For him to ask me to record this message means he must be crazy about you. I would feel terrible if doing me a favor caused him any trouble at all. You have nothing to worry about, love. He adores you, and there is absolutely nothing going on between us. There never was.”

Terri’s face burned from embarrassment, but she was very pleased, too. “You came all the way here to show that to me?”

Gavin tucked the phone in his pocket. “Are you satisfied now?”

She nodded. He made her so weak. Unstable. “You could have just sent me the video.”

“We both know that wouldn’t have been enough.”

“So you’re upset with me?”

Gavin hardly ever expressed anger toward her, but she tested his patience with her tardiness. Last week she rushed out of the bedroom, full of apologies. He waited with crossed arms and mouth pressed together.

“Next time, I’m leaving your ass,” he warned.

She sidled up to him and pressed kisses to his lips. He was unmoved, so she grabbed his junk. “You sure about that?” she asked, as he grew in her hand.

He bit his lip to keep from smiling, but amusement sparked in his eyes.

“That’s what I thought,” she said and cockily dragged her lips across his mouth. This time, he succumbed to the kiss. Then she took his hand and led the way out.

“Of course I’m upset. I can’t do this every time,” he said, handsome face hard and unyielding. “You’ll have to trust me. Can you trust me?”

“Yes,” Terri answered. She licked her lips, imagining sucking on his full bottom lip.

“You sure?”

“Mhmm.” The heat of arousal crawled up her thighs. Unable to bear the separation anymore, she pressed against him. “I can’t believe you came all the way back here.” She looked up at him from beneath her lashes. “That’s so hot.”

His eyes narrowed on her upturned face. “Hot, huh?”

“Mhmm.” Terri trailed her fingers down his shirt, pressing the tips into the hard muscle. “You have no idea how hot.”

Gavin’s lids lowered over his eyes. “You drive me out of my mind, you know that?”

“Mhmm.” She fit a hand over the massive bulge in his pants. His body stiffened, and his nostrils flared.

“You don’t even know how to behave, do you?” he asked, voice low and hoarse.

“Nope.”

He pulled her in until their bodies rested flush against each other. Gazing up at him, lost in his eyes, the helplessness she often experienced flooded her body.

With him, she was liquid. Putty.

He kissed her, his mouth gentle and moist as it moved over hers.

“So you’re not mad anymore?” he murmured against her lips, the light brown of his eyes barely visible through the thin slits his eyes had become.

“How could I stay mad when you flew all the way back here just to deliver this message?” Terri flicked her tongue against his mouth and nipped his bottom lip. “You knew I was upset and came to fix it.”

“So how jealous were you?” he asked, sounding smug.

Pursing her lips, Terri wound her arms around his neck.

“Hmm?” he dropped a kiss to her pouting mouth.

“Only a little.”

“I have to admit, it’s kind of sexy. Women usually let me do whatever I want.”

“That’s the problem. You’re spoiled.”

Tightening her arms around his strong neck, Terri raised up on the tips of her toes and opened her mouth. She gave him a deep, thorough kiss—one that made her moan and her breath catch when he cupped her bottom, possessive and rough, and hauled her tighter to his groin.

Her fingers ran over his closely shorn hair, the faux hawk completely abandoned now, and ventured below his collar to caress the back of his neck. The kiss deepened as their lips tangled together, both of them moaning and tasting. He plucked at her bottom lip with his teeth and she teased his top lip, sucking it into her mouth.

Their movements became more frantic as Terri smoothed her hands over his hard chest. The muscles underneath the expensive shirt flexed beneath her palms. When he hastily shoved her shorts down around her ankles, she tugged his shirt free of his waistband and slid her arms along the warm flesh of his narrow waist.

“I want to make love to you bad, baby, but I don’t have anything.” He breathed the words into her neck, urgency in his hands as he massaged the smooth globes of her bottom and ran his hands over her hips and down her thighs.

“It’s okay,” Terri said. She yanked the two sides of his shirt apart and three of the buttons popped off. Undoing the last button as she pressed her lips to the expanse of brown flesh revealed, she flicked her tongue and dragged her teeth along his firm pecs.

Gavin groaned, placed a restraining hand on her shoulder, and eased back. “Give me five minutes and I’ll run—”

“No,” Terri whined, shaking her head vehemently. She dragged the tank top over her head and tossed it to the floor to stand naked in from of him. “Just pull out. I want you. Now.”

His breath came faster and irises darkened to vivid copper. He bit down on his bottom lip—simultaneously cute and sexy—wrestling with his decision.

“I’ll pull out,” he said, sounding like he was trying to convince himself that he could.

They moved over to the sofa and he disposed of his shirt. Terri arched her back, wrapping her legs around his waist. He pressed his face between her plump breasts and gathered them together, sucking the tips and laving the nipples with moisture from his tongue. She urged him on, moaning until he raised up on his elbows and their gazes met.

When he eased into her warmth, his eyes closed, the pleasure of entering her raw so unbearably sweet he could hardly stand it. He filled her, thrusting into her wet sex, and she met each forward drive of his hips by lifting hers up to greet him.

“You’re so sexy, baby. You feel so good.” Terri moaned, rotating her hips against his.

Gavin stilled, looking deeply into her eyes, in such a way it appeared as if he was seeing her for the first time. “You know why I came back?” he asked.

Terri’s heart pounded. She couldn’t look away. He’d ensnared her with his gaze.

“Because I hated that you were upset, and I
did
want to fix it.” A slow smile crossed his face. “I love you.”